How Much Ang Pow To Give My Wedding Helpers

You have engaged the help of several of your family and friends for your big day. And as a token of your appreciation, you would like to give them a red packet, or ang pow.

This is one area that gives many wedding couples a terrible headache. On the one hand, you would want to sufficiently remunerate them for their kind efforts. On the other, you do not want to bust your budget by giving more than what you can afford.

How much ang pow to give your wedding helpers

There is no right or wrong answer. But, we have come up with 2 ways in which you can best work this out.

Remunerating based on role
One way of deciding how much to ang pow to give is to look at the help that each person will render. We have polled close to 60 couples who have had their wedding in the last 12 months to get an idea on the amount of ang pow they gave. Here is what they gave, on the average:

Bridesmaid $68 – 108
Sisters (Jie Meis) $68 – 88
Gatecrash $288 – 688
(divided by all the
sisters and bridesmaid)
Best Man $68 – 108
Groomsmen (Xiong Dis) $68 – 88
Driver $68 – 88
Emcee $48 – 68
Photographer $68 – 88
Videographer $68 – 88
Makeup Artist $68 – 88
Hired Help $8 – 18

Hired help refers to the professional service providers like your wedding photographer, wedding videographer, makeup artist etc, whom you paid for their services. These red packets are not mandatory. Some couples just prefer to add on a token of appreciation. All other roles indicated in the table above are assumed to be carried out by family or friends.

Remuneration based on budget and role
If you are working on a budget, then consider proportioning the ang pows according to the duties assumed by your family and friends.

For example, if you have a budget of $800, 6 jie meis and 6 xiong dis, you can proportion your budget according the formula below:

Bridesmaid 7% $56
Sisters (Jie Meis) 22% $176 ($29 per jie mei)
Gatecrash 35% $280
Best Man 7% $56
Groomsmen (Xiong Dis) 22% $176 ($29 per xiong di)
Driver 4% $32
Emcee 3% $24

Of course, you can fine tune the amounts a little. In our example above, the emcee should receive a $24 red packet. In reality, no one really wants to give or receive a $24 ang pow due to superstitions (To our international readers, 24 in chinese loosely translates to “easy die” and that is inauspicious). Consider giving $28 instead. Likewise if $56 for the bridesmaid or best man seems odd, then perhaps increase it to $60 or reduce it to $48, whichever suits you better.

So fret no more and we hope this little guide will save you those extra white hairs!

If you are scratching your head over how much ang pow to give a wedding couple for being invited to their banquest, check out our guide on “How much ang pow to give a wedding couple“.

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